National Ballet Of Denver

SurJones

SurJones

Veteran
Okay, so I have been in the workflow section all this week. Getting my proceeders list (which I posted for people to d-load) For my first, it went really good. One of the benifits to shooting into Final Cut was immediately after they were able to watch the whole performance. Also did some testing during the dress rehearsal, and they came up to see how it looked :)

Now onto the images I am posting. 3 have been color corrected. I would like your opinions to which you like better. Ultimately it the the national ballets choice, but I want to see yu guys might think as well. Really hard to keep people from blowing out in the face, It is either a couple people standing in the wrong spot, and you'll loose the brightness on the front persons face.. but other than that. I like both CCed and Non-CCed. HERE IS SOME FOOTY
 

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Beautiful screen grabs!

I'm sure that you also seem to hate the way blue can be reproduced with this camera... it gets noisy as it falls off into black (I'm looking specifically at the image at the bottom of the one woman in red).

What were your settings?
 
Thanks for the comments. You know I really dont complain about any noise. I mean you have it in 35, you have in in HD, and you are going to have it no matter what. I just am thankful I we have such a great OVERALL professional camera.


I shot 720p/60p
Shutter: 180d
Detail Level+4
Croning+2
Master P. -5
Auto Iris
Ran L/R from sound board into XLR 1 and 2 ports, with Channel 3/4 automatically recording the audience.

I did not use slow mo, Becasue not being able to record PN into FinalCut. I love both CCed and unCCed versions. The Non-CCed gives a Live look, and the CCed gives a intimate show just for the camera.

I have NEVER considered doing a ballet, but the money + dvd sales. I see why videographers do it.
 
Really nice depth to the blue of the backgrounds :O)
Care to share the camera settings ?
 
The shots look great; nice composition!

As to which is better? Well, the thing is, a lot of the similar work I do involves sets and complex lighting. And the set, lighting, and costume designers are usually very well-known and respected artists brought in for the show. So, the quality of the imagery is secondary to capturing the "live look" of the stage. This is very tricky when dealing with ultra-high-contrast lighting and widely-staged scenes! But I've trained myself to not prioritize what I think is important (perfect-exposure, etc) over what the clients think is important (most natural, realistic representation of what the stage looked like, which is watchable). So, in your pictures, I'd tend to choose the ones that maintain more of the dynamic range of the light over the more crushed-black looking ones... but at the same time, it doesn;t look like the show was very heavy on the lighting complexity, so the others may be fne as well.

By the way, are you filming nekkid?
 
patrick, Looks really nice . NO noise in the blacks either. Settings? looks really clean... the only thing I'd say and I know how hard it is and you have to decide on exposure and compensation.. but the dancer in right on the right is a bit blown out.. on the dress.. But there would be a trade off for the girls on the sides, right?


Nice.. was it a good gig? And how much do you love having all of this server space now and bandwidth?
 
Thanks for the comments thus far. The settings are up top. The composition and exposure was a hard one. Justyn: you are right about the left vs. center. Either cant see the girls on the left or nice expousre. I think Ulltanta said it best.

"But I've trained myself to not prioritize what I think is important (perfect-exposure, etc) over what the clients think is important (most natural, realistic representation of what the stage looked like, which is watchable)."

I love my bandwidth :)

If I knew how to do a Gradient, I could do a Circular keeping the exposure right and bring out the left and right with out it affecting the center.
 
I bet someone on this site would be able to tell you how to do it. Shoot.. I'd like to know myself. Actually i was going to ask about doing a fuzz out blurr effect for a persons face .. it moves throughout the shot.
 
Thanks for your comments and time to comment.

the drives I used are G-Drive FW800 and Lacie FW800 - Both 250gig
 
Nice images,

You are smart recording at 60P
Do you use IRIS in auto ? What is the gamma used ?

Also, you are recording all the ballet direct in the MAC ? Via Firewire at 720 ?
What is the HD space for 1 hour of ballet (I understand there are lots of blacks in the image)?

Thanks,
Ulisses
 
It was was definatley worth shooting in 720p60p and yes very much worth shooting into FinalCut. Although I wish the updates were available back when I shot it being it was one large clip and not you can shoot and FinalCut will cut the clip and keep recording without any latency. Space was about 550 or 60 gigs, dont remember :) Settings I am sure are on the first page of this thread. If they are not, I always take a pic of me settings while on location or set. (very wise BTW) I shot to a G-Drive FW800 and had a Lacey there for a back up, I bought the Lacey first, cause I did not know if I would get my G-drive in the mail fast enough. I always have back up drives.

Thanks for the complements as well.
 
SurJones said:
I shot to a G-Drive FW800 and had a Lacey there for a back up, I bought the Lacey first, cause I did not know if I would get my G-drive in the mail fast enough. I always have back up drives.

Thanks for the complements as well.
Click to expand...

Looks nice. I shoot a fair amount of dance myself and enjoy the challenges that come with it.

I've been itching to use long-form recording with 720/60P into FCP like this, and did a recent test that went smoothly (although I used a PowerBook G4- looks like you brought out your whole workstation!). Glad you've already tested the workflow in the field and thanks for sharing your results.

Is your backup drive plugged in, or do you just have it with you in case? Also, do you run loop record on the HVX in case of a disconnect, etc.?
 
Ya I always have my bac up drive plugged in. I have 100% FAITH in G-Technology being they use A+ drives, but just have to remember it is a moving part. So just leave the other ready to go. :)

I have never seen a reason to run a run my HVX rerecording. I have done over 50 shoots since this shoot and with the set up in the pic on the first page, and NOT one issue. It is a flawless workflow. So I dont fear the reaper on a weird shut down or anything.

I am Set up ready to shoot in 15mins if I am lagging with out my Starbucks ;)

Thanks for the complements as well. I shot this back in the first couple days of Dec. 06:)
 
Thanks. Funny you mention G-Tech, I had one konk out on me last year. To their credit, they replaced it and no more problems.

You don't set up/break down every time right? Those Mac towers are heavy...
 
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